The cost of the New Year's table will be at the same level as the Christmas table, as the only prices that decreased are those for tomatoes and cucumbers, with the reduction being imperceptible and not creating a substantial reduction in the overall cost, the President of the Cyprus Consumers' Association, Marios Drousiotis, told CNA.
In a statement to CNA and when asked about e-Kalathi, Mr. Drousiotis asked the Consumer Protection Service to publish a report on the operation of the application so far, adding that the Association's assessment of the operation of e-Kalathi so far is that it failed to meet promises and expectations.
He stated that based on a survey conducted by the Association on the cost of the Christmas table, in Nicosia the cost for a "rich table" that includes a total of 34 products, for a family of four was estimated at 160 euros and for a family of six at 227 euros, for the "economic table" that includes only 19 of the total 34 products for a family of four was estimated at 98 euros and for a family of six at 129 euros and the cost of a table for the weakest financial incomes with 11 of the 34 items, for a family of four was estimated at 33 euros and for a family of six at 49 euros. Compared to the cost of the Christmas table in 2024, there is an increase of 9%.
Responding to a question regarding the survey, the President of the Association clarified that it was conducted in supermarkets in Nicosia and not in neighborhood butchers and fruit stores, clarifying that the prices recorded by the survey were from the same supermarkets that were included in last year's survey during the same period, so that there is a standard of comparison.
Regarding the cost in the other provinces, Mr. Drousiotis said that in the other provinces there were no volunteers to support such a survey. At the same time, he noted that the survey conducted in Nicosia included four supermarkets with nationwide operations (chains) that sell at the same price in all provinces.
Asked whether e-Kalathi helped consumers make their holiday purchases, Mr. Drousiotis said that the Association announced on December 3 its assessment that during its six months of operation, e-Kalathi had failed.
On the subject, he mentioned that a supermarket with a chain of stores nationwide in 60 days (October - November) on 15 days did not have products on e-Kalathi. "It is not possible for the consumer to not have access to the e-Kalathi of this particular supermarket during 15 of the 60 days," he added, stating that this particular supermarket, out of the 478 products included in e-Kalathi, only had 120-125. Continuing, he said that from December 17 to December 29, the supermarket chain in question did not participate in e-Kalathi.
He further stated that a second supermarket chain with stores nationwide in October had 135 products on e-Kalathi out of the 478 that e-Kalathi includes.
Therefore, with these data, e-Kalathi failed, as some things were promised to us and others are being verified in the 6-month operation, he said, also pointing out that when a supermarket has 8.000 to 10.000 product codes and e-Kalathi contains only 478 and two supermarkets nationwide have only 125 to 135 items in e-Kalathi, the consumer is not supported.
They did not give us the basket we were expecting and advertising, he continued, saying that initially they had said that e-Kalathi would contain 3.000 products, the 3.000 became 2000 and finally 478 products were included, but no supermarket has all 478 products. The supermarket that listed the most products on e-Kalathi had 450 products, he further stated, pointing out that no supermarket has all 478 products.
Subsequently, after stating that e-Kalathi is not user-friendly for the consumer and that based on the information received by the Association, 9 out of 10 who tried the application did not try it again, he said that "I publicly challenge the Consumer Protection Service to inform whether, after 6 months of operation, it assesses that e-Kalathi has succeeded, failed, and how many of the 10.000 consumers who downloaded the application are using it."
He added that what is expected is that after 6 months of operation, the competent agency will make and publish an evaluation.
Source: KYPE
